Microsoft has released the Windows 8.1 preview for download, but they region-locked it to 13 specific languages, and Dutch is not one of them. So, even though my Surface RT has been completely and utterly English from the day I bought it, I can't install Windows 8.1 and tell you something about it. Those of you who can download it, why don't you tell us what it's like - or you can head to The Verge who got early access. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a little annoyed that we're arbitrarily being left out once again.

Not quite. The whole point is that Microsoft believes that touch is the future of general purpose computers. That day may come, but it's not today no matter how much they try to push it.

By completely forgetting about their corporate, government and small business customers, they are cutting off vital revenue streams moving forward. IT departments are already notoriously timid about change, and though Windows 7 is a stellar OS its adoption is only recently gaining ground.

At my part time job this month, nearly four years after its release, I've finally been able to move all but one of our machines to Windows 7. That lone machine stays on XP because one of our software vendors requires it. Once that hurdle is passed, we'll be Windows 7 across the board...probably just in time to enter the extended support lifecycle.